Transaction

"Minato! Hurry! I can't hold it for much longer, and this terrifying chakra in its mouth..."

Gamabunta pinned the Nine-Tails beneath him, falling silent as he stared at the heart-stopping chakra gathering in the beast's maw.

"That move again!"

In the distance, Hiruzen Sarutobi muttered to himself.

He was nearly spent; having already lost an arm, pushing a behemoth like the Nine-Tails out of the village had pushed him to his absolute limit.

Namikaze Minato used the Flying Thunder God to appear atop Gamabunta's head. Watching the Tailed Beast Bomb take shape, his mind raced for a countermeasure:

I absolutely cannot let this thing explode inside the village. The Nine-Tails is too massive; teleporting it would drain nearly all my chakra. If that masked man appears again...

While Minato pondered, the Tailed Beast Bomb in the Nine-Tails' mouth was ready to fire. Gamabunta raised his front limbs and forced the beast's jaw shut, causing the Nine-Tails to swallow its own Tailed Beast Bomb.

The next moment, the weight beneath Gamabunta vanished, and the Nine-Tails disappeared from the spot.

A roar erupted from a distant mountain, followed instantly by a blinding white light and a massive mushroom cloud rising into the sky.

On the street.

"It seems you paid a heavy price. Shall we go together to exact revenge?"

Uchiha Shisui's gaze fell upon the empty sleeve of Obito, who was hidden in the shadows nearby, and he spoke slowly.

Obito stepped out from the shadows, his robes tattered, yet his aura remained undiminished as he addressed Uchiha Shisui:

"Just an arm. I was careless."

Obito paused, looking toward the distant location of the Nine-Tails.

"Revenge is unnecessary. I just want to see how you intend to subdue the Nine-Tails as your summoning."

With that, Obito reached out and placed his hand on Uchiha Shisui's shoulder. A vortex emerged in his eye, and as the space twisted, the two figures gradually vanished from the street.

Inside a forest outside Konoha, a massive Adamantine Sealing Chains barrier completely enclosed the Nine-Tails.

"It's a barrier isolating the Nine-Tails. We can't get in."

Hiruzen Sarutobi said, pressing his Adamantine Staff against the barrier, only to be repelled instantly, just as he had expected.

"Wait! That seal the Fourth is using is... the Dead Demon Consuming Seal!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched the technique Namikaze Minato was performing inside the barrier and spoke slowly.

He struggled to lift his remaining arm, his soul-less limb hanging limp as he fell into dark memories.

"Sealing Jutsu! Dead Demon Consuming Seal!"

Inside the barrier, Namikaze Minato shouted. The Reaper's arm instantly passed through Namikaze Minato's body and reached toward the Nine-Tails.

Feeling the tug on its soul, the Nine-Tails furrowed its brow and roared, "Fourth! You bastard!"

A moment later, the Yin Nine-Tails was instantly ripped from the Nine-Tails' body and sealed into Namikaze Minato, causing the Nine-Tails' physical form to shrink by half.

"Next is the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style!"

Namikaze Minato said calmly. He raised his numb arm and formed the seals. A puff of white smoke appeared, revealing Naruto, still in his swaddling clothes, lying quietly on a stone platform.

"A sealing altar? You intend to seal me again, and into that brat?"

The Nine-Tails noticed Namikaze Minato's movements and raised a claw, its sharp nails pointing directly at Naruto.

"Because its size has decreased, the Adamantine Sealing Chains can no longer fully restrain it! I won't let you hurt Naruto!"

Kushina lunged forward, using her body to block the Nine-Tails' claws.

"Kushina!"

Namikaze Minato was quick to react, shielding Kushina with his own body as he positioned himself in front.

With a sickening squelch, the Nine-Tails' claws pierced through both of them, stopping in mid-air just a hair's breadth away from Naruto.

"Damn this sealing jutsu!" The Nine-Tails felt the chains binding it begin to tighten and roared in fury.

"I can't drag this out any longer. I'm reaching my limit; I must complete the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style immediately!"

As Namikaze Minato spoke and prepared to act, the space beside him began to twist.

"At a time like this! That guy!"

Namikaze Minato glared fiercely at the two figures emerging from the vortex.

"Are we still a step too late? The Nine-Tails is already down to half its power."

Uchiha Shisui remarked, looking at the shrunken Nine-Tails.

"Breaking through the Adamantine barrier took some time, but it's not too late. At least the troublesome ones have been dealt with."

Obito replied calmly, then turned to watch the dying couple without a flicker of emotion.

"Hey! You Uchiha brat over there! I, the Great Nine-Tails, agree to be your summoning beast! But you must help me break free. How about that deal?"

Feeling the contract forming within its body, the Nine-Tails looked down at Uchiha Shisui and negotiated.

"That suits me perfectly, Nine-Tails."

Seeing the Nine-Tails take the initiative to compromise, Uchiha Shisui realized he wouldn't need to waste effort forcing it to submit, which played right into his hands.

"What a pity, Fourth Hokage. I cannot let you seal the Nine-Tails into Naruto. Of course, I am doing this for Naruto's own good."

Uchiha Shisui walked over to Naruto's side, spinning a Kunai in his hand as if he might plunge it down at any moment.

"What do you think you're doing? Get away from Naruto!"

The weakened Uzumaki Kushina seemed to have been struck at her most vulnerable point, her rage rising visibly.

"Getting so angry will only accelerate your death, you know."

Uchiha Shisui spread his hands, indicating he was merely trying to scare them.

"It is time to leave, Shisui. Konoha ninjas are gathering here, and there is no need for us to go to war with Konoha directly just yet."

At this moment, Obito walked over and spoke slowly.

Uchiha Shisui nodded, leaped onto the head of the Nine-Tails, joined his hands together, and shifted his hand seals.

"Majestic Attire: Susanoo!"

Purple-black Susanoo armor instantly enveloped the entire Nine-Tails. Immediately after, two thick, powerful arms slowly extended from the beast's broad back, each hand firmly gripping a chakra katana that shimmered with a cold light.

The blades were long and slender, wreathed in dense chakra.

Bolstered by this newfound power, the Nine-Tails let out a deafening roar, a sound filled with the exhilaration of breaking free and boundless fury.

It swung the chakra katanas with lightning speed. Amidst the flashing blades, a few crisp "bangs" echoed; the seemingly indestructible Adamantine Sealing Chains were sliced through as easily as fragile spider silk, the broken links scattering across the ground.

With its bonds shattered, the Nine-Tails' power was fully unleashed.

It whipped its massive body around violently, and Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, who had been impaled by its giant claws, were tossed aside as easily as two insignificant fallen leaves.

Their figures traced an arc through the air before crashing heavily onto the ground in the distance.

The Nine-Tails did not pause for a second. Its massive paws slammed into the earth, causing the ground to instantly fracture into spiderweb-like cracks.

It then spun around, carrying Uchiha Shisui on its back, and bolted toward the edge of the forest, vanishing into the chaotic woods in the blink of an eye.

Uchiha Shisui... just how many secrets do you have?

Obito watched the fleeing Nine-Tails and Uchiha Shisui, his brow furrowing as his thoughts turned to Madara.

As the Adamantine Sealing Chains were destroyed, the barrier dissipated as well. Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived quickly with a group of Konoha ninjas, wielding his Adamantine Staff as he struck fiercely at Obito.

"What! It passed right through!?"

Having missed his strike, Hiruzen Sarutobi leaped back in haste.

"Time is up, so I should be leaving as well. Although today wasn't entirely satisfying, we will meet again!"

With that, Obito's eyes swirled with distortion, and his figure rapidly vanished before the Konoha ninjas.

"Space-time ninjutsu?"

Watching the mysterious man disappear into thin air, Hiruzen Sarutobi drew upon his vast experience to instantly identify the nature of the technique.